253
Film · 1996
Mahjong
麻將In rapid-growth 1990s Taipei, four cynical young hustlers—gang leader Red Fish, pretty-boy Hong Kong, charlatan Little Buddha, and newcomer Lun-lun—prey on gullible locals and wealthy expats. When a naive young French woman named Marthe arrives in the city chasing an unfaithful British boyfriend, Lun-lun takes pity on her, sheltering her from the group's predatory schemes. As Red Fish tries to settle old scores with his debtor father and vicious underworld loan sharks close in, the boys' opportunistic cons spiral into violence, betrayal, and unexpected redemption.
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Alternating between the abrasive and the poignant, the sad and the terrifying, Mahjong offers a demonic tour of modern life that culminates in one of the most shocking, dramatically powerful murders I’ve ever witnessed in a film.
Jonathan Rosenbaum on Chicago Reader Fittingly, his most loving film was preceded by his angriest: Mahjong (1996), an overtly cosmopolitan work involving various gangsters and a French woman played by Virginie Ledoyen. Yang’s controlled aesthetic erupts into wild colours and tonal shifts, fascinating in its integration of Western actors on his terms and placing some of his most despairing and tender scenes side by side.
Ryan Swen on Sight and Sound The various strands of plot are interwoven with phenomenal mastery, and Yang's images are as effortlessly precise as ever. It's his sharpest funny/sad vision of city life yet.
Tony Rayns on Time Out
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